Nikola Tesla

"No one can stop our righteous lightning. None but that miscreant Edison..."

Nikola Tesla, pioneer and innovator of alternating current, joins Chaldea as a self-sufficient sturdy NP spammer with a powerful AoE Buster NP. Against his favored enemies, especially, he's an excellent damage-dealer for farming and hard content alike.

With his ability to easily charge up his NP, Tesla can reliably use System Keraunos multiple times in one battle. As this NP benefits from an Interlude and from strong innate damage boosts, the overall damage output from Tesla's NP cycling is quite high. Furthermore, System Keraunos gains a damage boost against Heaven or Earth Servants, pushing Tesla's AoE damage against these Servants to the point of being among the best in the game.

In exchange, Tesla's damage outside of his NP is fairly unimpressive, as the boosts that apply to his normal attacks are quite limited. Additionally, the NP Damage and Defense buff on Inherent Wisdom have a chance of failing, hurting Tesla's overall sustain and damage output.

As a whole, Tesla's damage output is quite strong, especially against his favored enemies. His damage is mainly concentrated on his NP and his buffs aren't entirely reliable, but in the right team he's a terrifying AoE damage-dealer.

Strong NP Spam Potential

With Galvanism giving him additional NP generation as well as the 50% NP charge from Pioneer of the Stars, Tesla can consistently unleash his Noble Phantasm. Furthermore, Tesla's high Star Weight ensures he can critical hit easily while under the effect of Galvanism. While the NP itself deals a good amount of AoE damage, Tesla’s ability to use it constantly gives him monstrous damage output.

Strong NP Damage

With an innate Attack buff and NP Damage buff on Inherent Wisdom and an Interlude-boosted NP, Tesla's NP damage output is high even without his Heaven and Earth bonus damage. Additionally, Pioneer of the Stars allows Tesla to ignore Invincibility and Evasion buffs, while his total burst damage output can sometimes be further boosted by executing an NPBB chain.

Heaven and Earth Bonus Damage

Against Servants with the Heaven or Earth attribute, Tesla's NP damage is exceptionally high, surpassing even most ST Archers. His niche encompasses a broad group of Servants, and when it applies it makes Tesla an excellent pick for difficult fights involving multiple enemies.

Low Normal Attack Damage

While Tesla's NP damage output is quite high, the only boosts he has for his normal attacks are the Critical Damage buff on Independent Action and the relatively weak Attack buff on Inherent Wisdom after Rank Up. As such, Tesla's damage is heavily concentrated on his NP, and if he is unable to use his NP consistently his damage will suffer.

Inconsistent Durability and Top Damage

The NP Damage buff and Defense buff on Inherent Wisdom have a high chance to succeed, but they do have a 20% chance to miss, which would lower Tesla's effective damage output and sustain. When the NP Damage buff fails, Tesla's damage is much less impressive, especially outside of his Heaven or Earth niche. Meanwhile, if the Defense buff fails, Tesla is remarkably fragile with only his Guts to keep to him alive and his NP slowly reducing his health.

All of Tesla’s skills synergize well and should ideally all be leveled eventually. Tesla's main purpose is to use his NP as soon as possible to aid in farming and clearing more difficult content. Hitting the 50% NP Charge benchmark on Pioneer of the Stars is especially essential as it opens up many more different CEs for Tesla to use and still NP quickly. Inherent Wisdom meanwhile mainly serves to further boost Tesla's damage output, while Galvanism helps to keep the NP spam going. 

• Galvanism A is important to Tesla's ability to make frequent use of his NP. However, Tesla's other skills are more impactful for burst damage and farming, yet Galvanism remains key towards unleashing 2 NPs in the span of 3 turns while Inherent Wisdom is still in effect. Generally, level this last.
• Inherent Wisdom EX may not be as reliable as Tesla would like, but the guaranteed attack buff after Rank Up coupled with an 80% chance to get the NP damage buff makes this skill good enough to warrant investing in lowering the skill's cooldown. The defensive tools it gives are also handy against more difficult opponents. Level this second. 
• Pioneer of the Stars EX's main benefit is the 50% NP Charge at maximum level, but having the Ignore Invincibility and Instant Critical Stars on a lower cooldown is also valuable. Pioneer of the Stars should be leveled first due to its central role in Tesla's farming and NP spam potential. 

As Tesla's damage output is concentrated on his NP, he wants CEs that help him deal more NP damage. This means CEs that provide Buster Performance Up or NP Damage Up are ideal. Additionally, given Pioneer of the Stars can instantly give 50% NP, Tesla also benefits immensely from hybrid CEs that give Starting NP Gauge.

• Partake with the King / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Holy Night Supper / Dragon's Meridian: These CEs provide enough Starting NP Gauge for Tesla to use his NP immediately with the help of Pioneer of the Stars. These are ideal for farming.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: As Tesla can spam his NP relatively easily, CEs that increase his NP damage allow him to deal more overall damage to enemies, especially against his favored opponents.
• Limited/Zero Over / Verdant Sound of Destruction / Hero Elly's Adventure: Sporting the ability to NP Buster Brave Chain, Tesla can make good use of Buster Performance boosts. Buster Performance CEs are more effective than equivalent NP damage CEs as Buster Performance buffs stack multiplicatively with Tesla’s native NP damage buff.